Europe
Pritchard is a leading Eurosceptic. Pritchard defines himself as a "main stream Eurosceptic".
He was one of the so-called leading “Tory Rebels” who oversaw the largest post-war defeat of any Conservative government concerning a European Referendum.
Pritchard has called for an “in out referendum” on the European Union. Central to Pritchard’s argument is that “The majority of Britons living today have never had a say on Europe”, what Pritchard refers to as “the great disenfranchised”.
Pritchard was one of the architects of the motion calling for a ‘real terms cut’ in the EU’s Multiannual budget in 2012. He was joined by fellow eurosceptic MP, Mark Reckless, to draft the so-called ‘Reckless-Pritchard amendment’ which saw David Cameron’s government defeated over the issue.
Pritchard calimed that the vote would “strengthen David Cameron’s hand in Brussels”. During the EU Budget debate in the House of Commons he said, “One way in which the Prime Minister’s hand can be strengthened is by having a united Parliament rather than a disunited Parliament when he goes to Brussels to negotiate on my birthday, 22 November.”
Read more about this topic: Mark Pritchard (politician)
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“Europe has lived on its contradictions, flourished on its differences, and, constantly transcending itself thereby, has created a civilization on which the whole world depends even when rejecting it. This is why I do not believe in a Europe unified under the weight of an ideology or of a technocracy that overlooked these differences.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)